Three ways Sergio Lobera can solve Mohun Bagan SG's goal scoring troubles to re-energize ISL 2025-26 title charge

Mohun Bagan SG have dropped points in their last few games

Mohun Bagan SG have started to slip up in their charge towards winning the 2025-26 Indian Super League (ISL) title, having failed to win their last three matches. The Mariners seemed set to end their winless run in their previous clash against Jamshedpur FC, only to see a late equalizer from Ritwik Das restrict them to a 1-1 draw.

The Kolkata giants are still involved in the title race, even though Mumbai City FC seemingly holds the advantage for now.

It’s clear that the Mariners must improve many aspects of their performances to gain the necessary consistency needed to dominate their way into winning their third straight ISL title and the first one under Sergio Lobera.

However, the Spanish gaffer needs to find a solution to Mohun Bagan SG’s goal-scoring issues that have tormented them in recent weeks. The Mariners have only scored one goal from their last three games, which was also a stunning long-distance goal from Liston Colaco against Jamshedpur FC.

The inability to score goals is clearly holding back Mohun Bagan SG from taking control of the ISL title race and re-establishing themselves as favorites to win the title. Lobera needs to find solutions to his side’s goal-scoring issues and get rid of the sloppiness that has plagued them in recent games.

Here, we look at three ways Sergio Lobera can help solve the Mariners’ goal-scoring issues and help re-energize their charge for the ISL title.

3. Call for full-backs to play a bigger attacking role

It’s not like Mohun Bagan SG are having trouble creating chances, but their attacking patterns has become a bit predictable for the opponents midway through the 2025-26 ISL campaign.

The Mariners’ opposition have realized how reliant they are on the likes of Liston Colaco, Robson Robinho or Dimitri Petratos to create chances, as marking them tightly is helping restrict the big goal-scoring chances created by the Mariners.

A way for potentially ending this issue would just be for Sergio Lobera to give more attacking license to his full-backs. The Mariners are anyhow dominating possession in most of their matches, averaging a 67.5% ball possession per 90 in the 2025-26 ISL.

Hence, they are less prone to swift breaks than most of the other ISL teams and can withstand having their full-backs be more advance as well. Lobera has to push the likes of Subhasish Bose (who has three assists so far) and Abhishek Singh to be braver in making overlapping runs with more regularity.

The full-backs have to be quick and unpredictable with their forward movement, encouraging teammates to play them into the danger zones so that they can disrupt the opposition backline shape and create big chances for their teammates.

Once Mohun Bagan SG’s full-backs are able to create chances with consistency, they’re automatically likely to break the steel of opposition teams better and score more goals.

2. Improve set-piece threat

To indicate how frustrating Mohun Bagan SG have been in terms of set-pieces this season, one has to give an example of their loss to Mumbai City. The Marines received 17 corners in the game but failed to even score a single goal.

Set-pieces were actually a strength for Mohun Bagan SG last season, with the likes of Subhasish Bose and Alberto Rodriguez scoring the majority of their 11 combined goals by getting at the end of free-kicks or corners.

However, Mohun Bagan SG’s only notable set-piece goal this season came in the opening game against Kerala Blasters – when Tom Aldred converted one late in the 2-0 win. Since then, goals from set-pieces have relatively dried up for Mohun Bagan SG.

For any team challenging for the ISL title, having a variety of scoring options is vital and that includes being a big threat from set-pieces.

Lobera has to work hard on set-pieces in training, using more innovative techniques and ensuring that better delivery is made to players like Rodriguez, Bose and even Jamie Maclaren from corners and set-pieces.

If able to crack this issue, the Mariners should be able to score more goals consistently and be a major threat for their opponents too.

1. Potential formation change

Perhaps it’s also time for Sergio Lobera to look into a potential change of formation to improve his side’s chances of putting opponents under more pressure and score goals in a more consistent fashion.

Lobera has stuck with his 4-2-3-1 formation for all the ISL matches so far, using the likes of Dimitri Petratos, Jason Cummings and Robson Robinho in that no.10 role. Perhaps it’s time to take that role away altogether and utilize his attacking options in a smarter way.

Mohun Bagan SG have the personnel to be able to operate in a 4-4-2 formation or even a 4-4-1-1 formation, with there being the potential of a Maclaren-Petratos or Maclaren-Cummings frontline for either of the two shapes.

In such a formation, Robinho could be slotted out to his natural left-wing role and Liston could be moved out wide.

In such a formation, however, there would be more of an onus for the likes of Anirudh Thapa and Lalengmawia Ralte to step up and create more chances from central areas.

However, this can also increase the element of surprise at Mohun Bagan SG and make them more unpredictable – which can have a positive impact on their goal-scoring capability as well.

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